Generation 89 meets to debate the past and plan the future
Generation 89, currently underway in four European capitals, is a project intended to bring together young people from different backgrounds and different experiences to debate their common future in the European Union. Participants from nine EU member states are meeting in Bucharest, Brussels, Prague and Warsaw to talk about where they came from and where they want to go. The project was initiated by the Romanian Cultural Institute to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and co-financed by the European Commission. Dan Mitra Duta, the project manager, explains the idea behind it.
“ It is about bringing together young people born in that crucial year, a milestone year for European history. In Eastern and Western Europe there are two completely different mentalities and we thought they should exchange experiences, converse together, communicate and share ideas – young people from the former communist bloc and those from established Western democracies. They should say what they expect from the European Union as European citizens, what they think the European Union can do for them and what they can do for the European Union.”
“We expect to hear what this generation has to say. We want to hear them express their expectations, their hopes, their memories. We want to know how they compare themselves with the generations that went before 1989, what they expect from their future in the European Union as European citizens. And I can say, after a day and a half of discussions, that interest in sharing ideas is really enormous. Of course, we were expecting interesting discussions, but the result has surpassed our most positive expectations. Our young guests are very active, very interested, very intelligent and witty people. They are raising interesting questions, they engage in great dialogues and sometimes they surprise even the moderators with their very intelligent and interesting questions – as well as conclusions.”
I understand there will be some kind of declaration at the end of this?
“Yes, there will be a declaration but that will only be carved after all four meetings have been concluded. I mean the declaration will not be drafted in Prague alone. It is supposed to be a declaration by all the participants and as you know there are meetings underway also in Brussels, Bucharest and Warsaw.”
And the declaration will be taken to Brussels?
“Yes, four of the most active participants will be elected –in a democratic way – from each organizing city. And this delegation will take the declaration to Brussels in June in order to hand it to representatives of the European Union.”
You heard most of the debate –is there any difference in the young people from the former Eastern bloc and those from Western Europe?
“There are differences between all the individuals present here. Each of them is an individual in his/her own right. Each of them comes with original ideas. So I would say that I did not observe a significant difference. Of course, those born in established Western democracies did not have a knowledge of the workings of a totalitarian regime from their parents as those in the former Eastern bloc did. But the difference is not so big as it would have been twenty years ago. If twenty years ago young people from the East and West had met the difference would have been much bigger. ”
